Luxon said he could assure New Zealanders the country was in a good position, with “healthy stocks” of fuel, and the fuel companies had made changes ot their allocations to support demand over the coming weeks, including through Easter and the upcoming school holidays.<\/p>\n
He said this meant New Zealand remained in phase one of its fuel response plan.<\/p>\n
“But we are continuing to prepare for a move to phase 2 if we need to.”<\/p>\n
He said the Cabinet today discussed the option of pursuing further commercial opportunities to add to the current level of fuel security.<\/p>\n
“Obviously any option we pursue has to be affordable, practical and timely, but officials are pursuing options with urgency.”<\/p>\n
![\"Finance](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4JQY8TW_Screenshot_2026_03_30_163007_png.jpeg\")
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\nFinance Minister Nicola Willis.
\nPhoto: Screengrab\n<\/p>\n
Willis said the government was now actively seeking proposals for New Zealand-refined fuel imports on arrangements that would support additional purchase of stocks through to June.<\/p>\n
“The proposals would involve the government working with industry partners to deliver additional fuel from offshore to manage the risk of a shortage of supply. An insurance policy, if you will.”<\/p>\n
She said the government had already been approached by some parties with unsolicited proposals to increase supply, commercial assessment of those proposals was now being urgently carried out.<\/p>\n
She said this could see additional supplies for New Zealand stored offshore.<\/p>\n
On Friday last week, the government gave more detail<\/a> on updates to its 2024 fuel plan.<\/p>\n That laid out what would trigger a change from the current phase 1, to higher phases; more specifics about what each phase would mean, and how different sectors would be prioritised for fuel if it came to that.<\/p>\n The government has continued to emphasise New Zealand does not face supply shortages.<\/p>\n However, prices have continued to be high – with data from price monitoring app Gaspy showing a 90-cent increase for Unleaded 91 and a 158-cent increase for diesel in the past 28 days.<\/p>\n Luxon told Morning Report on Monday<\/a> said as long as phases one and two of the national fuel plan<\/a> are effective, people won’t have to worry about phases three and four.<\/p>\n “At this point in time we’ve had no indication that our fuel importers who we talk to daily, multiple times a day, have had any cancellation of their forward orders,” Luxon said.<\/p>\n He said the government’s utmost priority was ensuring that the country had fuel – even if that meant fuel suppliers paying additional Iranian tolls.<\/p>\n Luxon said he was leaving it to fuel importers and distributors to organise how to allocate fuel.<\/p>\n “There needs to be a reworking of the allocations which is what the importers and the distributors need to work out this week, and it’s up to them to do so.”<\/p>\n